#408 Erkenningsnummer P708816
December 2, 2015 \ newsweekly - € 0,75 \ read more at www.flanderstoday.eu current affairs \ p2
politics \ p4
Alert level drops
The Winter Wonders Christmas market in Brussels opens on time as the terrorist threat level drops back to 3 \2
BUSiNESS \ p6
innovation \ p7
Strange days
Bruges whisks you back in time more literally than ever, with a device that lets you see the city as it looked in the middle ages \7
education \ p9
art & living \ p10
For shame
The Dr Guislain Museum in Ghent hosts another dramatic, wide-reaching show about an emotion no one on earth can escape \ 14
Breaking the taboo
KU Leuven project tackles mental-health statistics by getting students talking Bjorn Gabriels More articles by Bjorn \ flanderstoday.eu
The University of Leuven has launched the project MindMates, which seeks to combat a worrying trend in mental health problems among students in higher education.
I
n the autumn of 2014, the Student Health Centre at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) launched MindMates, a peer-supported campaign to promote emotional well-being and suicide prevention among students. The project was recently kick-started by a symposium topped off with concerts by Tom Helsen and Pieter Embrechts, in addition to a string of workshops and other activities. MindMates has caught the eye of the Flemish media and, more importantly, local students. Raising awareness around mental health problems is a crucial first step. At the same time, these efforts also touch upon one of the many paradoxes that surround the subject. In recent years, we have been served a steady diet of suicide rates and other alarming indications. Despite this level of information, and many a campaign to address the issues at hand, emotional problems remain a taboo in Flanders. The MindMates homepage introduces visitors to a set of startling figures. A four-year study into the emotional well-being of KU Leuven students shows that one in five struggles with at least occasional depression, and that one out of 10 has thought about suicide. “Our research indicates that there are a lot of emotional problems among students, and that suicidal behaviour is common,” says Marleen Gheldof, a psychotherapist at the Student Health Centre in Leuven and co-ordinator of the new initiative. “We also know that young adults are less likely to seek help than other age categories. All of that creates a very dangerous mix.”
Young adults are less likely to seek help than other age categories Statistically, students run no higher risk of mental health issues than their peers who aren’t pursuing higher education. In the university’s student newspaper Veto, professor Ronny Bruffaerts of the Research Group Psychiatry put the conclusions of the new results into perspective. “It’s remarkable how the risk of emotional problems later in life increases as one’s date of birth is more recent,” Bruffaerts wrote. “Someone born in 1980 runs a greater risk than someone born in 1970. This trend continues to rise and is a global phenomenon.” With these statistics in mind, it’s also important to distinguish between being at risk for mental disorder and actually suffering from a mental disorder. Nevertheless, the research once again demonstrated that the situation needed to be addressed. “The MindMates programme has grown out of our desire to do better at preventing suicide and promoting emotional well-being,” says Gheldof. “We all know the figures, but there’s still a strong need to break the silence. We also want students to talk to each other when they’re feeling down.”
© Rob Stevens/KU Leuven
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